


Flesh

by nosugaronmycoffee



Category: Ginger Snaps (Movies)
Genre: Blood, Drug Use, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Gore, Gothic, Grief, Hallucinations, Happy Ending, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Virginity, Major Character Undeath, Occurs Right After Original Movie, Partners in Crime, Road Trip, Romance, Self-Harm, Werewolf Turning, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:00:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23994892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosugaronmycoffee/pseuds/nosugaronmycoffee
Summary: It takes place right after the original movie, scratching out the canon from the other two movies. Brigitte and Sam have to deal with the cure themselves to keep them from turning, between other matters.
Relationships: Brigitte Fitzgerald/Sam
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. The Memory

Back in Autumn, Brigitte and Sam were dealing with the cure. They need it and fast. Ginger was completely out of her mind for them to wait any longer. Then, the Monkshood Pamela got from the craft.

Back in Autumn, they didn't have to deal with the effects of being infected with the lycanthrope virus, spreading through all their tissues. Slowly, but it was happening.

_"How about you take this and we blow?" Sam asked._

_"How about no!" Rasped Brigitte._

Sam has always wondered what turn of events would have happened if Brigitte had say yes at that. He wasn't counting on fate nor good luck to save his ass from an actual werewolf, because that was what Ginger has turned to. Brigitte was infected like Ginger but he could still save her, and he probably wouldn't have gotten infected as well.

The image of both Brigitte and Ginger drinking from his blood as he bled and dripped on the floor of their basement came to his now troubled mind. Luckily, by drinking on his blood and gaining Ginger's confidence once more, Brigitte was able to move Ginger to another room.

He was sure he was going to die but, at the same time, he could feel his wounds healing with incredible speed. His arm somehow wasn't broken anymore either. By the time he felt he wasn't bleeding anymore, the ruffled noises coming from the basement had stopped.

When he reached the girls bedroom, he saw something that had stuck inside his mind ever since. Ginger was lying dead on the middle of the floor, Brigitte was resting her face on her chest who wasn't moving any longer. She was crying and holding the wild animal Ginger have transformed into.

Back in Autumn, the search for the cure was essential, but now, it was desperately. Brigitte and Sam were both cursed and had to get away. Away from their old lives, away from the clues that would lead to them, away from everything they knew.


	2. The Tests and Subjects

It took them a while to get used to the new simple aspects of their lives. After Sam got all the Monkshood from the kitchen, Brigitte burned down the house with Ginger's dead body trapped inside. From there, they fled. Sam drove his van fast, but soon as he felt like they could park for a while, he rolled the car into a stop.

"Shit. We have to give you the Monkshood, Brigitte. You're already turning."

The young girl didn't look so good as she took the unused syringe from her coat pocket. She seemed to be in a state of drowsiness mixed with pain, and she was shaking a little. Her once opened wound on the palm of her hand was already healed, though with white hairs growing from the wound, and there were spots of blood all over her. She was still crying from everything that happened in the last couple of hours; her life was forever changed, and Ginger was gone. She barely registered Sam touching her arm and rolling up her sleeves. He had a syringe between his teeth and she took a deep breath.

"Ready?" He asked her, softly.

Of course Brigitte had seen the effects of Monkshood before, and it seemed the perfect antivirus for the issue. But she also did notice that the subject could also be in pain at first. She nodded with her head and look down to check the incision Sam made in her to apply the cure. She immediately started to feel pain, from her backbone, spreading all around. It was brief, though. She noticed her breathing a little elaborated and after it was gone, she opened up her eyes.

"How do you feel?" Sam asked preoccupied, eyes on her.

"Wicked." She answered, ironically.

Then it hit her. Her mind was so busy on the thoughts of losing Ginger that she had almost forgotten that Sam had been attacked by her, too. She turned her eyes back on him. He was bloodied also but everything else seemed to be okay. Surely, he pulled her out of the house before she had the idea of burning it to the ground, but up until now, she didn't take any close glance at Sam. Who was now cooking his own Monkshood.

"How..." Brigitte started.

"Apparently with much damage as possible, faster I healed. You've seen that before with Ginger."

"Yes, I thought she would die, too, but you were almost dead." She dropped her voice a little. "Sorry about tasting your blood, too. It was the only way for her to leave you alone."

"Not a problem." Wow, that sounded dark.

After Sam was done injecting the Monkshood, they were on their way away from Bailey Downs, fast again, heading Northwest.

"Do you feel any different?" Brigitte broke the awkward silence, after a while.

"I'm not sure, maybe just slightly. Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Brigitte noticed the new features on her hands and teeth disappearing and her mood was more stable now. Though her mind was still a reach. Her whole life has changed now; there was no Ginger, no Pamela, no school. She turned her face at Sam, who was the only one there with her. The good news was that they have found the cure they needed and could move on from the werewolf nightmare land.

Right?


	3. Not So Fast

When Brigitte opened her eyes she noticed she had fallen asleep while they were still driving. She could see the sky changing colors, from the deepest of darkness to dark blue and a little red. Brigitte rubbed the sleep off from her eyes, turning her eyes to Sam. She had never seen him this tired before. Noticing she stirring by his side, Sam looked back at Brigitte.

"Why don't we find somewhere where we can crash?"

"Sure. I need to shower." Brigitte said, staring at her bloody clothes. She cursed herself by not thinking she would need different clothes in a runaway.

Sam had been bloodied as well, but he had the time to at least change his clothes with what he had in the van and wash his face and hands. He parked into a Hotel parking lot and got them a room with two beds, a couch, a T.V, and a bathroom.

He let the door open for her to get inside first, and closed it behind them. He mumbled something about hitting the sack and before Brigitte could reach the bathroom's door, she was sure he was already asleep, thrown onto one of the beds. That’s better, she thought. She would be able to cry as much as she wanted under the warmness of the water. She wasn't sure how much time she spent on crying but she was feeling a little better now. Dressing her clothes on again, she threw herself on the empty bed. As she was getting sleepy, she heard the soft words coming from Sam.

"I'm sorry about your sister, Brigitte."

She didn't reply to that. She needed sleep and forget about Ginger for a while. And they did, they slept for several hours, it was almost dusk when Brigitte noticed some footsteps going around the room she was in. She stirred and started to sit down on the bed.

"What's going on?"

"We've got a problem."

"What is it?"

Sam gave her an unsure look that quickly turned into a worried one. He lifted his shirt some to show the white hairs growing where he was slashed by Ginger. No, not that scene again! Brigitte looked down, checking her nails, and, to her surprise, they were way longer and stranger than it was when she was showering earlier that morning.

"We're still infected!"

"I know!" He said, nervously pacing around and smoking a cigarette. "We're in deep shit. The Monkshood must cause only a temporary cure. It's not permanent."

"Fuck. How could it be? Isn't it the dosage?"

"We need to try it again."

Brigitte crossed her arms over her chest and watched him leave. She knew he was going to get the Monkshood and the cooking items. She sighed and sat on the couch, turning the T.V. on. Maybe there was news about her burned house or worse, about she and Sam being fugitives, or even being searched by Trina's death. Brigitte thought about Pamela and for a moment she wondered how her parents would deal with both of their daughters gone. That thought was broken by Sam, who entered the room, carrying a backpack.

"Maybe I should prepare it this time," Brigitte told him, as he sat beside her.

"Okay. Make it stronger, here." Sam gave her the Monkshood, which she started to slowly tear apart the purple flowers.

They prepared two syringes with larger dosages than the ones before, the same with the concentration of the mixture. Sam was concerned they were taking a huge blind step there, so he voluntared to be the first one to take the shot. It hurt. He knew that before and knew even more now. After a few minutes, his vision comes clean again and he barely registered Brigitte asking if he was alright. He reached his almost empty hip flask and drank from it.

"Never better. It hurts like hell, though. We’re injecting literally poison, not too pleasant."

"At this point, I don't fucking care. If it can bring us back to what we were it's good for me."

Sam helped her with the syringe while Brigitte struggled to not bite her tongue off after he was done. Soon, the pain was gone, and they were left speechless for a while, trying to notice if anything changed at all.

"Do you happen to have a notebook? We should take notes on this." Brigitte asked.

"Yeah."

Sam took a notebook from his backpack, a pen, and started to write down the time they took it, along with how healed and precisions calculations on the formula.

"Do you feel anything at all?" He turned to her. "Anything besides... being human?"

Brigitte looked down at her nails that had returned to normal. She didn't feel changed and the wound on her hand was long way healed. No hairs either. Though, there was something. She couldn't quite point it out what it was, but it was there. Maybe not physically speaking but rather something inside of her. It was a strange urge to... To what?

"I still feel like myself, do you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

There was something digging between the stare they gave each other. It was a sparkle, but only for a fragment of a second. Brigitte looked down, rolling her sleeve back on her arm. Sam cleared his throat briefly. They were both mutating now, sharing the same virus.

"I think we should leave, as far as we go now the better," Brigitte said, quietly.

"Right." Said Sam, rolling down his long sleeve on again.

"If the Monkshood doesn't work as we expected to me... Don't even wanna think about it." Brigitte said.

“We’re gonna figure it out, Brigitte.”

Gathering their things they left the Hotel, hitting the road once again in the dead of night.


	4. On The Road

They decided that at any change, they would tell the other and right away make notes about it. Date, hour, minutes, seconds, what has changed and where. Nothing happened at first and, honestly, they were feeling quite hopeful. Maybe this time they got the right amount of Monkshood into their systems for them to be actually cured. A thought which was interrupted by Brigitte. Better yet, by something she smelled. That smell woke her up in a jump.

"Blood." She suddenly said, catching Sam's attention with that word. "Can you smell it?"

Brigitte turned her eyes to Sam, who was smoking a joint at this point. She rolled her eyes back to the road.

"Of course not."

"Hey, this is still my van, you know." He said with a chuckle, but he put it away. "Honestly, Brigitte, after everything in the last couple of days." He moved on his seat to get something inside his backpack. It was his notebook, which he gave it to Brigitte. "Here, I don’t smell any blood, but wolves do smells better than humans."

“Cheers.” Said Brigitte, sarcastically, making the necessary notes.

Resting the notebook on her lap and looked through the window, There was nothing that could explain that smell that only grew stronger. It was almost dawn when they reached another cheap Hotel room. By then, Sam was starting to experience what Brigitte must be talking about. Some white hairs were growing back again over healed wounds.

Brigitte left Sam in the bedroom and locked herself in the bathroom. She had to try something else and if she was right, it would probably slow down transformation as well. She took a shower then sat on the toilet lid rolled in a towel, her pocket knife in hand.

Slowly - but precisely - she made a straight line cut on her thigh, then stopped. Brigitte cut off a stripe from her already ruined skirt and wrapped around the wound. She grabbed the notebook on the counter close to the sink and started to write down again, this time, on the back of the notebook.

“That’s what you get from picking him over me.”

Brigitte heard loud and clear and in Ginger’s voice. It wasn’t anything like a memory of Ginger’s voice, it sounded like she was inside the bathroom, with her.

At first, she thought she was delusional and started to dress up and hurry up because she needed one more shot from that awful poison. When she glanced at the mirror, it couldn’t be.

“Ginger.” Brigitte breathed out the name.

She was actually seeing Ginger through the mirror. Quickly, she turned her eyes to her side, and for her own surprise, she was still there! Standing beside her.

“You think injecting yourself with that shit will stop the curse, B? You’re wrong, moron.”

Her first reaction was to hug her sister, but as she did try it, Ginger disappeared. Brigitte was fucked up. Definitely fucked up. She knew it was just a hallucination but it was still difficult to process. She had to get out of that bathroom otherwise she would go insane.

Making her way back to the bedroom, she saw Sam sitting over one of the beds, with that thick botanic book she had seen before, open in front of him.

“I cooked one dose for you.”

By now the ritual wasn’t that freaky anymore and was becoming more like a habit. The syringe was lying close to the book.

“So, I’m reading throughout the Ranunculaceae family, which Aconitum fits in, right? There are other four genera, cousins, of Aconitum, that match all its categories: Toxicity, ecology, cultivation, even folklore in botanic studies. They also grow naturally in the same seasons. If you wanna potentialize a specific genus, Aconitum in this case, the stronger the venom would be. The chemical and physiological response from a mix of these cousins would be much more powerful than the Monkshood alone. Could be dangerous, but possibly produce an actual cure.”

Brigitte was sat on the same bed with her feet on the floor. Finding the right vein was getting easier but it didn’t take away the pain she felt going although her body and, for a moment, she shut her eyes from getting too dizzy and not wishing to pass out. When she thought she was finally able to talk again, she noticed Sam looking at her with a confused look.

“What?”

“Nothing. So what do you think?”

“I think it's worth a try. It makes sense to me, gathering as much “wolf poison” as we can gather in one single shot. And we’re not getting anywhere with Monkshood alone.”

There was definitely something wrong with Sam. Maybe he was experiencing the same things she has started to feel? He was smelling something in the air and had closed his eyes for a moment.

They were probably telling lies to each other; she knew she was. Though the test with the cut was just an experiment in a way. It didn’t have to be talked about yet. And about Ginger… It could wait.

Sam had a confused look in his face once he smelled blood coming from Brigitte. His senses were getting stronger. Though the oddest of things was the smell of Brigitte’s hair after she left the bathroom.

“Your hair smells like cherries.”

That was a little sudden but when Brigitte looked at him, Sam had leaned in, obviously sensing something. Brigitte was still like a rock on her spot, looking a little alarmed.

“Should I put that in the book?”

She didn’t mean to be joking around but it was actually the only thing she could process at the moment. Realizing what he was doing, Sam moved back and chuckled.

“My bad, I don’t know what’s up with that. Anyway, I think we should look up deeper on folklore, local folklore, we might find something useful.”

Being as exhausted as they were, it didn’t take long for Brigitte to be in bed and after a hot shower, so was Sam. Before falling asleep, Brigitte thought about how much of a pack she really was with Ginger. The instinct of being always together and the care and protectiveness towards each other. Might be what was really happening here, was one of her last thoughts before falling asleep.

The road trip was at least convenient for them to realize the span of time between certain changes - Eyes, teeth, smells, hair, and pain were the main ones, though still controllable - and when to administrate the Monkshood.

Having some control over it was already a step one.

From the bright side, driving at night have never felt this good before. The chilling draft coming from the open windows was getting colder as the night went by and morning approached fast. Sam decided that since they were getting closer to their destination, they wouldn’t stop that morning and just keep driving to get there that same day.

After crossing a slaughterhouse in their way, they assumed that was the place where the smell was coming from. But it was so far from where they started to its pick up.

Pushing that awkward moment aside – and distances to be written down –it was being a peaceful ride.

It wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Brigitte sometimes fell asleep and every time she woke up Sam was still driving. They had a lot to talk about in that meanwhile, theories to debate and honestly, it was easy to find a topic to share. After a while of just music, Brigitte felt the van parking on the grass of a valley next to the main road.

"I need to stretch out my legs a bit," Sam said, getting out of the van.

Brigitte stepped out of the van, too, inhaling the cold breeze of morning. Among other scents, she had started to experience.

"Sam, where exactly are we going?" Approached Brigitte, with a little aggravation in her tone of voice. "We've been on the road for two days."

"I know some people that might be able to help us out."

Brigitte gave him a skeptical look.

"Help with what? The virus?"

"Not exactly the virus, but maybe finding us a place to stay while we deal with the cure. I guess we’re also running away from all that shit in Bailey Downs."

Sam lighted a cigarette and Brigitte leaned on the van by his side, thinking of what else could she come up with to help them to move on from that situation. After a while, she sighed in defeat.

"Bum me a drag."

Sam gave her a funny look. Brigitte rolled her eyes.

"Please."

It wasn't like she hadn’t smoked before, she actually did it quite often with Ginger.

"There's no way I can get back there. It’s just too much damage. I burned the house down so there wouldn't be any traces. Of me, you, Ginger, Trina-"

"Trina? Trina Sinclair?" Sam looked confused.

Fuck, she thought. She noticed she was suddenly rambling but there was no going back now. Brigitte turned her eyes to Sam.

"Trina Sinclair appeared in our house a few days before Halloween. She and Ginger got in a fight and... She slipped. We didn't kill her," Brigitte continued, giving him his cigarette back in an attempt way of turning his attention to something else other than her. "But we did bury her in our yard."

Sam had his eyebrows arched up, mouth slightly open.

"Holy fuck."

"Yeah."

"How did she slip?"

"She dropped the milk from the counter on the floor. She had a knife pointed at Ginger when she slipped. Her head hit the tip of the counter... Then was... Geyser. All over the floor."

Brigitte revisited that scene for a moment.

"But why was she there?"

Brigitte immediately looked away, remembering why Trina was there that night and the nasty things she said about Sam.

"She thought I had her dog." She replied shortly, half lying.

He looked up, absorbing the information. That was really awkward. And morbid, though did make sense.

"Look, whatever it is, I guess we're lucky to have each other. We could be in this alone."

"I know... Thanks." Brigitte gave him a knowing smile. She knew he could have taken off any time, but he didn't.

It was a rare thing, to see Brigitte smile, which made Sam look back at her with a small smile. He took a look at the scene they were in, the sky, the hills, the van, even the cigarette butt now dead on the grass. Could this make the moment any special for Brigitte?

Sam stepped on the butt of the cigarette before touching Brigitte's cheek lightly, running his fingers over the delicate skin, almost as if asking permission. He lifted her chin a bit and pressed his lips on hers. She was caught a little out of guard. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion for some reason. For an instant, Brigitte thought about shoving him away, but she didn't.

She had no clue about what to do, so she stayed still, but did press her lips back. It was useless to keep denying that was what she really wanted. It was a slow, tentative, and somewhat brief kiss, but it has definitely shaken her.

She felt lost. Where would her arms go, how should her lips move? Before she could figure all that out, it was over. Sam was still there though, with his hands on her hips and a smirk on his face.

Brigitte was flustered, she should be a really bad kisser. Of course she was, she had never done it before. Well, to hell with that. The part in her that told her to hold back her instincts was ignored, as she leaned in and kissed him again. Sam put her hands around his neck then hugged her, not too tight, kissing gently back.

He taught her how to kiss as the sky changed colors in the background. It wasn't as awkward as it was at first, and Brigitte had to admit she really enjoyed that, which surprised her. Sam had also taken measurements not to cross the line – he didn’t want to fright her away. From a simple touch of lips, they were fully kissing. He held her closer to him, though they weren't fully jumping each other’s bones. No, it was all very sweet.

They broke apart slowly, Sam intertwining their fingers together.

“As awesome as this is, we must keep going.”

“Yeah.”

They shared another knowing glance before initiating another sweet kiss. Time flies when you’re young and making out.


	5. Bloody Meat

"These friends of yours..." Brigitte started, as they entered the state of British Columbia. Ontario was left way, way behind.

"Yeah?" Sam asked, a little suspicious where this was going.

"How do you know them?"

"I know what you're thinking, Brigitte. They don't sell weed, no. I've met them at computer camp."

“Computer camp.” She repeated to herself, not expecting that but in a way it didn’t really surprise her. Sam knew a lot of stuff.

They both were so different but it clicked somehow. Sam was such a nerd. Look who's talking, that's true, but how could anyone be also so cool at the same time? Brigitte would never figure it out. She was a freak. More than ever now.

She was still a little distracted by what happened at dawn. It was almost midday and not much changing from the virus since their last shot. They still didn’t have a full cure to the virus, but maybe Sam’s idea was right. Maybe they weren’t forever cursed in the end.

"I'm hungry." Brigitte sighted.

"Me too. We must get there by nightfall, let's get something to eat." Sam agreed.

Brigitte picked the notebook from the glove compartment and started to write down something.

"What's that?" Sam asked after parking in one of the first cafes in the highway. He was looking down at her handwriting.

"I'm really craving meat. Raw, bloody meat." Brigitte told him.

Sam’s stomach growled at the thought.

"Fuck. So am I. Come on."

They left the van and walked to the door of the cafe, Sam pulling it open for Brigitte. Always Mr. Gentleman. Her stomach growled at the smell of the meat in that place, and it smelled delicious. They ordered burgers and sat on one of the booths.

"Meat have never been this excellent before," Brigitte said, noticing the two slice of bread turning red from the bloody meat.

It was true. Meat has never been better, Sam thought.

"Okay, these are the facts: Monkshood is a temporary cure and even though it helps us from turning into fucking furries, it doesn’t heal as we expected. We're still changing, this is real. Once we get there, we look for seeds. Winter won’t take long to get here, the cultivation must have to be indoors."

Brigitte knew Sam had skills at gardening. Growing a specific kind of seeds in special, that's true, but honestly, it wasn’t really an issue for her. Not at this point.

"We are starting all over, aren't we?" She asked, somewhat melancholic. "We're gonna need money, jobs, new clothes..."

"I've got over forty thousand dollars. We can start with it."

Brigitte stopped herself from asking how but she already knew it. Something else caught her attention in Sam's words. They were starting over together. Maybe things were happening too fast, and it has been since Ginger was bitten. Anyway, that's all she could hold on to right now and, honestly, didn't seem that bad at all.


	6. Starting Over

Going back to the van, they agreed to get in the back first and shoot up another dose. Inside of the van was a few plant pots with grown weed, some gardening items, and a few other things from Sam, like the backpack and a few jackets.

Once again, taking a shot of Monkshood was painful and distressing – Brigitte started using a teeth brush from one of the Hotels they stayed to put between her teeth so she wouldn’t bite her tongue.

It was clear they were running out of Monkshood.

Evening came when they finally reached their destination. Brigitte didn’t know how to socialize and without her sister, it was harder for her to fit in. It has always been like this and the anticipation of meeting Sam's friends made her even more anxious. Sam could be a social butterfly if he wanted, and after arriving at their new place, it seemed like he had been friends with them for a long time.

They were extra friendly to Brigitte, who barely spoke anything. Mostly just to explain that the red spots on her clothes were part of a Halloween disguise. She couldn't wait to wash those clothes so people would quit looking at her like that.

Sam had previously explained to her that they lived in a community, a sort of mix between geeks and hippies who actually worked together. There were two houses in their lot, medium size, two floors each, and a plentiful garden.

They were pretty receptive to show them everything around and then, without much compromise, letting them stay in as much as they needed. Alex seemed to be the closest one to Sam and the one that showed where Brigitte and Sam could stay.

It was in one of the houses' top floor, which they had to get some stairs that led to a small balcony. There were a few chairs and a wooden circular table. From the balcony, there was a door with access to a narrow kitchen and two suites. One to the left side of the kitchen and the other to the right side.

They didn’t have much on them to bring up to their new quarters but Sam was already making plans on where to grow the Monkshood and the other seeds they still needed to obtain. Luckily, there was indoor cultivation on the yard and they could start working – once again – on the cure. But, for now, resting after the road trip across the country was a necessity.

Morning came and with it, the starting of new strategies. Sam made some breakfast and when Brigitte woke up, he was at the balcony smoking a cigarette, on a notebook placed on the table outside. Probably borrowed from one of those rooms full of electronic equipment in that place.

“Morning. I’ve found the address of a craft store for herbs not too far away from here. Wanna check it out?”

“Okay, I thought about getting a library card, too.”

Finally, she got those bloodstains out and got fresh clean clothes.

They finished breakfast and left the propriety looking for one of the closest craft stores, then straight to the vivarium. Luckily, they found some Monkshood flowers and some seeds of it, plus a few seeds of some genus of Thalictrum and Delphinium flowers to start with. Fortunately, they are grown in Canada, that was probably why they didn't have much of a problem with obtaining them. It was such an advance in their search. The other two kinds of herbs, well. That would have to be arranged in some other way.

Soon after, they found the public library, where Brigitte was sure she would spend a lot of time in: There was so much more to research. It was getting dark as they left the library carrying some books with them. Once back to the house, movement all around was to be noticed. Sam’s friends were being dorks together in the first floor. They invited them to stay and hang out but their priority was, obviously, the cure they desperately needed. The actual cure, to be precise. After some small talk from Sam, they headed upstairs instead.

That balcony became their base operation. They read together, often using the computer on the table they shared. The theory about Monkshood stopping symptoms of the virus to activate was true and they were managing it well.

“According to Greek Mythology,” Started Brigitte, reading from the book she had been reading for the last half an hour. “Its possible for a werewolf to turn back to legit human form if you bathe under the moonlight in a sacred river for Artemis, in which the river spring must be from a silver mine.”

Brigitte closed the book with a heavy sigh.

“This is gonna be impossible. Did you find anything?” She asked Sam.

“In Russia, they say you’re supposed to drink the blood or eat the flesh of the werewolf who turned you.”

There was an awkward silence. Both were thinking about the same thing: Ginger. Who have turned both of them. Now, long dead.

“We can scratch that out...” Sam said, quietly.

Sam stood up and took a cigarette from the box in his pocket. He looked up at the moonlight while taking some drags, leaning on the fence railing close to where they were.

“Death is becoming much more real and closer each day. Do you think about it?”

Brigitte shrugged.

“All the time. Sometimes I think we’re doomed to Ginger’s fate. About how inevitable death really is.”

Sam gave her a worried look, but not at all a judgemental one.

“But I don’t feel like giving up now. Not at this point.”

Sam nodded in agreement while staring at Brigitte’s dark green eyes. He tilted his head to the side as he took another drag of his cigarette and stretched out his hand to Brigitte, who was still sitting on the chair. She took a little shaky breath before finally accepting it. They were standing incredibly close to each other, still holding hands when Sam spoke.

“You know, we have to trust each other because most people don’t go through as much as we have. Not even in a whole entire lifetime.”

“I hadn’t realized how much I needed you,” Brigitte confessed in a low voice.

“Ever think I’m playing your game?” Challenged Sam, with a grin in his face.

“Because you want to?” Brigitte challenged back.

“No. Because I like you.”

Brigitte was speechless for a moment.

“You do?”

“Of course. Brigitte, guys want a girl who is sweet and kind and smart, just like you.”

Finally, Sam could see that shy smile on her face again.

“You know, when I told you I don’t mind being alone I lied. Don’t ever leave, okay?” Brigitte told him softly.

“Okay,” Sam said in a whisper.

He threw his cigarette away, cupping Brigitte’s cheek and looking for permission before leaning in any closer. It was Brigitte who made the final move, shutting her eyes closed and pressing their lips together. Sam was pretty experienced and good at this because Brigitte never thought of herself as someone who would jump someone’s bones like she was almost doing here.

She didn’t know how, but Sam made her feel something she hadn’t experienced before. Was it desire? Because they were making out like crazy. It was a long french kiss with a pinch of desperation. They had their hands on each other, all above the clothes, but slightly pulling on them. Ginger behaved like that in the past, maybe that’s what was going on here.

Somehow, after being able to put her thoughts in order, she slowed down. Sam did the same, not at all transgressing any borders, which Brigitte was glad for. Sam was quite respectful and gentle, honestly. If only she knew how much of self-control someone experiencing such ache for sex as Sam was had to endure, she would have been more careful before doing that again.

Even though they slowly broke the kiss, they were still pretty close to each other. Brigitte, without even realizing, started to get intoxicated with Sam’s scent. Her eyes were still shut but she leaned in, absorbing all those new information. Which was apparently reciprocal since Sam was doing the same, slowly leaning in on her hair again.

“I understand what you were talking about the other day.” She told him, as she moved back a little to look into his blue eyes.

“About what?” He asked.

“Apparently you can smell me the same I can smell you.”

Sam chuckled.

“Guilty as charged. Does it bothers you?”

Brigitte shook her head slowly.

“Not really.”

They looked at each other for a moment before kissing again, so delicate at first but almost uncontrollable after a few minutes. That felt good but something else had started to grow at fast speed on their insides. Something that scared Brigitte a little.

“Sam.”

“Yeah?” He whispered, as spreading sweet kisses on her neck.

“I think we should stop.”

Brigitte wanted to tell him the truth. That she wasn’t ready yet, but without sounding too virginal. Which was pretty fucking dubious with all that new wave of desire she started to feel towards Sam. Who immediately stopped what he was doing after listening to that last bit. He stayed where he was for a few more seconds before moving back a little.

“O-okay. Why?”

She stared at him with her pupils blown wide.

“Because I feel like literally tearing you apart,” Brigitte whispered back. The way she said that and the way she looked at him there weren’t any signs of that being a joke.

They kept staring at each other’s eyes for a bit more until Sam sighed, finally relaxing a little.

“Tell me about it,” Sam admitted.

It was true. He was hungry for it, too.

It was also a complicated situation. Those feelings were real and the possibility of hurting each other was not very pleasant. Somehow they would have to work on that before anything brutal happened. Sam wouldn’t hush Brigitte on anything, and that’s what he told her. Somehow, she knew it. She became to trust Sam.

“Well, I guess I’m hitting the sack, then.” He told her, still holding her hands.

Sam kissed her one more time, passionately but shortly. Brigitte decided she wanted some more of that kiss, which caused them to chuckle a little in the kiss before they broke apart.

“Sleep tight, Brigitte.”

He made his way into one of the bedrooms to take a hot shower, jerk off, and go to sleep.

Brigitte remained by the balcony, flipping through pages on books, but also debating with herself everything that was happening at the same time inside of her. She was becoming something different, no shit, but in so many aspects she couldn’t grasp all of it entirely.

The virus was controllable as they kept injecting Monkshood every day, but her new secret wounds which healed so fast to a non-recognizable anymore would have to be over son. Plus, changes were still happening.

As she stopped debating all those new things happening to her, she knew she had to focus on the cure and everything they could do to be fully cured of the lycanthropy virus but, as the minutes went by, she had to stop the research for the night and get some sleep. After all, tomorrow they had work to do and she definitely needed some rest.

In bed, as she started to drift off, something made her open her eyes wide and her heart skipped a beat at the voice she just heard.

“It's actually happening now, huh? I don't blame you, B. Sam is kinda hot.”

Brigitte heard her sister speaking to her again. It was dark, but she could still see her silhouette in the same bedroom she was in. Brigitte closed her eyes tightly and put her hands over her ears.

“Don’t give me that bullshit, B. You know you wanna rip him to pieces. Believe me B, there’s nothing better in the world.”

“Go away, Ginger. You’re not real.”

Ginger giggled and Brigitte heard the sound of a lighter clicking. She opened up her eyes to see the light of a cigarette being dragged, then the smoke following it.

“You’re a fucking force of nature, B. Like I was, remember? Don’t deny your instincts, stupid. It feels so fucking good.”

Brigitte rolled to the side and pressed a pillow over her head, trying to ignore a nightmare that started before she even went to sleep. She ignored and ignored it until Ginger didn’t manifest anything else. Finally. Finally being able to sleep for a little bit.


	7. The Seeds

It was quite peaceful to wake up in that place. No animals to make distressful noises, only the cold cold weather making her wish to stay in bed a little longer. Brigitte knew the snow was not going to take too long to start snowing.

Despite waking up a little late, she noticed Sam in the kitchen on her way out to the balcony. He had prepared some coffee and was apparently in a good mood to practice some of his favorite hobbies. That also meant they were getting on with the new plan.

“Can they really grow even though winter is getting close?” Brigitte asked before sipping some coffee.

“Well, indoors, with some simple equipment, you can grow anything you want.” Sam chuckled. “Even during the winter.”

After breakfast, they headed downstairs, to that huge back yard. They grew all kinds of organics in that place and they took a look around before heading to the greenhouse. It was very similar to the one Sam had back in Bailey Downs.

Those guys had everything a greenhouse should have and the possibility for the seeds to grow healthier was high. Sam found a spot they could cultivate their seeds on and immediately started to work on it.

“It’s simple, but require taking care of them. Water them, pull the males, throw a little eggshells on them, every now and then.”

“How long does it take to grow?”

“About a month, a month and a half. Alright, let’s get to work.”

It felt good to be actually doing something to reach the goal of getting rid of the virus. Brigitte had to admit that she was putting most of her hope on those seeds. Yeah, maybe that would do this time.

“So... Alex told me earlier this morning about a get together later tonight. Feel like coming?”

Brigitte felt somewhat anxious for a second. Social get together was something she had never been too inclined to engage. She thought it over for a little while.

“Well… They’ve been cordial enough to at show up. I’m just not exactly good at socializing, that’s all.”

“We don’t have to stay long if you don’t want to.”

“Thanks.”

“Just thought that after the road trip we could just chill for one fucking night.”

“Okay.” Brigitte surrendered. “But I wanna keep checking on those books we got from the library before.”

“Sweet. Let’s go.”

They made their way back upstairs to their quarters and continued their research, after administrating some more Monkshood. As several pages flipped by, nothing too useful was found to be even mentioned. Though Brigitte had found a poem she decided to share.

“ _Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by the night, may become a wolf when the Wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”_ Brigitte recited. “It’s was written back in the forties.”

“Guess they didn’t get too accurate on that one, huh?”

Brigitte shut the book on her hands, placing it on the table and thinking quietly for a while.

“I got an idea. I need to use the computer, I want to look something up.”

Sam turned the computer over to Brigitte.

“Go nuts.”

Sam reclined on the back of his chair, resting his feet on the railing, watching the view and thinking for a few minutes while Brigitte researched on the computer. Both enjoying the silence.

“The Greeks thought,”

Brigitte said out loud after a while. Sam lighted a cigarette, quietly letting her continue.

“That bathing in a source of a sacred river to Artemis could turn a werewolf back into a human. In a full moon.”

“We have to face that most of these things we’ve been looking through are all bullshit. We have to stick with the facts.”

For a moment, Brigitte debated with herself if that could be the right time to tell about her “tests”.

“There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve been testing for the past few days.”

Sam had an intrigued expression in his face, putting his feet back on the ground.

“What’s that?”

“I’ve seen how fast Ginger healed after that werewolf attacked her, and after seeing you alive after being sure you were gone, well… I’ve been making small wounds on me and checking how fast they healed after administrating the Monkshood.”

“Brigitte…”

“I found out,” She cut him. “I’ve been healing faster each time I do it. Most of them are completely healed.”

Sam blinked a few times.

“...Which means a lymphatic system becoming stronger.”

They thought for a second, coming to the same conclusion.

“Vaccine.” They said at the same time.

“Fuck me!” Sam brushed his hair back with his fingers. “That means there’s should be a way of not being necessary to inject Monkshood every fucking day.”

Sam seemed relieved and Brigitte thought she had dogged the bullet about the cutting.

“You should have told me, though. We’ve been doing of all this together.”

Sam gave her a look that made her blush and turn her eyes away from him.

“I know. Sorry.”

“No worries. I gotta get some stuff in town. Wanna come with me?”

“Sure.”


	8. The Unpremediated First Date

They made their way to the van parked with the other cars and drove downtown to a nearby mall looking for some new clothes, gathering some medical kits and hygiene material. Even though being able to use a temporary cure the effects on the body – and apparently in personality – were still there and required delicate care. Walking back their way through the mall, they crossed an ice cream shop.

“Wanna get some ice cream?” Sam asked, spontaneously.

“Yeah, sure.”

It was something they haven’t done before but seemed nice, so why not, right? Just a comfortable moment to breathe and think of something else than the horror their lives had turned. They found an empty booth and ordered.

“So what do you think about the new house?”

“It’s peaceful and far away enough as I wanted to be, at least feel safe. I just don’t know your friends very well.”

“They’re great guys. Didn’t make many questions, I don’t think it will be a problem to stay till those seeds can germinate and grow properly.”

It was a fine plan and Brigitte hoped that tonight wouldn’t be a disaster, making her kind of anxious inside. Though living there without getting to meet them properly seemed very impolite and a little dubious.

“Hey.”

Sam caught Brigitte’s attention from her almost finished ice cream.

“Yeah?”

“Did you realized this is our first date?”

No.

Brigitte has not realized that until now, not with that expression on her face. She didn’t answer at first while still processing it.

“Oh. Is it?”

“Well, I asked you out, you accepted it, we’re having ice cream together… It seems like one to me.”

Brigitte got quiet for a moment – thinking - before turning her eyes back into Sam’s eyes.

“You’re probably right, it’s just… Being average… Had always grossed me out.” Brigitte stayed quiet for a little while. “But in a way, with you, I kinda like it.”

Sam inclined on the table towards Brigitte on the other side so she could listen to him closer.

“Brigitte. You’re anything but average.”

She tested him with a glance that took a little while to be broken, finally, giving him a small smiling and blushing slightly.

The aspects and concepts of date and dating here were somehow dubious here but for now, didn’t seem to matter. Brigitte was new to all these things and sometimes, it was difficult for her to understand the occasional kisses, flirting, and everything else she has be seeing so appealing about Sam.

The spam of time between each of them being infected was short, and the idea that whatever she was experiencing was something Sam was experiencing too made her a little on edge. It was like this before but things have changed now.

“I appreciate how you’ve been handling, well, this… this thing between us. It’s really nice of you.”

“My pleasure.”

He winked at her, finishing his ice cream.

There were still things to debate but that could wait for another occasion. It was getting dark when they got back to the house. There was already movement around of people and music. It wasn’t exactly a party but a casual bonfire with friends. Everyone there clearly knew everyone else, sharing some drinks and laughs.

Brigitte stayed close to the fire with some of the other residents while Sam, as expected, was socializing. The only other girl around came closer to Brigitte, since she was curious about her.

“Having fun?”

“Sure.” That was a half-lie. Though that night wasn’t turning to a disaster as she expected.

“I’m Lisa, by the way.”

“Brigitte.”

They kept staring at the fire for a little longer before Lisa spoke up again, teasing just a little, but also trying to be friendly.

“So, you and Sam, huh?”

Brigitte looked at her a little surprised.

“It’s not really like that. I mean, it wasn’t, before... Now it’s…”

Different? Complicated? Unique? New?

Before she started to put her foot in her mouth and feel uncomfortable, Sam appeared by her side.

“Do you want some punch?” He put one of his arms around Brigitte’s shoulder.

“Yeah, thanks.” Brigitte was glad how he appeared just when she needed him. “Excuse me,” Brigitte told Lisa.

She hoped it wasn’t baptized but at this point, she realized she couldn’t care that much about it anymore. As the fraternization went on, Brigitte relaxed some more and more, eventually even blending in with most of them.

Sam had his arm around Brigitte’s shoulder as they walk around and talked to other people around, getting some more punch and Sam filling his flask drink with more distilled drinks.

Finally getting some seats by the fire, which wasn’t as crowded at this point. The fire was had become less intense and was dying slowly as they finally had some time to talk about less serious things, once they were close to other people. It was indeed extremely relaxing.

Moving to get some drinks, they found themselves somewhat distant from other people. Sam took a sip from his flask drink in his pocket before putting his hands on Brigitte’s hips and slowly walking them slowly towards one of the trees around. They stared at each other as their feet moved slowly until coming to a stop. It didn’t take much for them to kiss, Sam gently pressing Brigitte’s against the tree stem.

Since it was a little far from where people were, it quickly turned to a make-out session and it was moving so fast that neither came to realize how hard their grip on another was becoming. They were still on first base, but that didn’t mean it would forever be like that. For some reason, every time they did that was becoming more difficult to ignore the animal instincts they had for each other. They bit each other’s lips passionately but then, unexpectedly, Sam let out a loud groan.

Brigitte had slashed two nails deep into Sam’s arm. She slashed him so badly that it started to quickly bleed.

“Fuck!”

“Shit! Sam, I’m so sorry!”

Brigitte put her hand on the wounds just to notice they were still bleeding and Sam’s layers of clothes were ruined. Sam took off his jacket, but this time, with a low groan, glad that no one else seemed to have listened to them. Brigitte pressed the jacket where the bleeding started on his upper arm. After some seconds, she moved the jacket from his arm and touched the wounds with the tip of her fingers.

“Does it hurt?” Brigitte asked softly, noticing how they were already healing.

“No. I’m fine.” Sam checked the wounds. “It’s not bleeding anymore… Dammit, Brigitte.” Sam chuckled in disbelieve, still incredulous about what happened.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure what’s happening, Sam. But every time you get closer it feels so… Good. It’s difficult to control it entirely.”

“You have no idea then what I go through when I’m with you.”

That sounded tremendously serious, especially with Sam's voice hoarse like that. They kept quiet for a moment before deciding to go back to the top floor in the house they were staying in. They needed another shot of Monkshood anyway.


	9. The Deadly Attack

For some reason, that night was harder to bare. It was like random evidence of still carrying the virus were still popping out all the time. Though for the most part they could control and reverse them. Hairs would be shaved, nails clipped, wounds would be healed, changed eye colors turned back to normal. Nothing too absurd once there was an established schedule of Monkshood’s administration.

What was really in question now was that new instinct of utterly destroying something – or someone. Brigitte didn’t know if she wanted to fuck Sam or eat him or what else. Sometimes she could feel her stomach urging for something else – obviously raw and bloody. Lately, that was what they were both eating the most in general, it was true. She had learned that maybe that ache for sex was just to tear things apart and that’s what troubled her the most.

“ B.”

Brigitte suddenly heard her sister’s voice again, probably ready to attack her with words. She didn’t reply at first but continued to listening to her anyway.

“Bounding together. Making promises of forever. What happened to dead by sixteen or dead in the scene. United against life as we know it?”

“Ginge…” Brigitte finally moved her head towards the sound of Ginger’s voice. She had sat on Brigitte’s bed by her side. Both staring at each other for a while. “Things are changed now. Our pact was broken after you died. After you left leaving me here without you. That was your choice. I’ve told you I didn’t want to get where you were at the ending.”

G inger, for once, stayed quietly; slowly laying down close to Brigitte. Brigitte thought she was going to cry again but after that, Ginger had become more passive towards her sister and they just lay  down in bed, looking at each other and whispering to one another how much fun they had together  after all those years. Having some time with Ginger – Actually, a hallucination of Ginger – had finally become less aggressive and more intimate like it was before  all that shit started to happen with the Fitzgerald’s sisters. Which surprised Brigitte, who was expecting nothing more than bad trips hallucinati ons of Ginger.

At some point during the night, Brigitte dozed off. And at some point during late at night, she woke up with a loud noise coming from the other room  right in front of hers . She debated for a few seconds  about checking what was that  then stepped off of the bed,  heading to check what was happening, but the door was locked. 

“Sam?”

She heard sounds of vomiting.

“Sam, let me in.”

She checked from the balcony if anyone else  has awoken but no signs of movement or any sound around. Brigitte went back to Sam’s door but before she could knock on it, she heard it unlock.

Fidgeting on her spot for a few seconds, she opened the door and entered the bedroom. It was quite dark in there with the only source of light coming from the bathroom. Brigitte moved in quick steps towards it.

That was a scene she was fearing would eventually happen but surprised her even still. Sam was partially covered in blood, over his clothes, face, neck, arms, and hands –  it was almost like a déjà vu .  The bathroom  was a mess. Brigitte’s heart was  pounding fast while staring at all that blood. Real blood.

“ Is that your blood? ” Brigitte asked, a bit terrified  about the  a nswer.

Sam  had his back turned to her when he shook his head no,  still  vomiting in the toilet. Brigitte took a few  careful  steps closer.  Sam  tried to  clean up his mouth with his  still bloody  hand. He stared at it for a moment, almost contemplating it, before turning his eyes to Brigitte,  who noticed how his nails had grown so much in such a short  period of time.

“I couldn’t take it anymore, Brigitte.”

“What happened?” Brigitte asked, quietly and patiently. 

“I went down to the yard  to get  a smoke and try to put  my thoughts  in order . I couldn’t sleep. ”

“Was it a person?”

Sam shook his head no again as he moved to the sink, trying to clean some of that mess off his face.

“I’m  Maple Ridge’s Beast,” Sam told her, looking at her through the mirror.

Brigitte  silently  shook her head  no . 

“No. You need a shot right now. Probably so am I.” 

She turned  around, turning on one of the lampshades and going after the kit  of paraphernalia  they’ve been using. Suddenly, the door from the bathroom was shut from the inside, stopping what Brigitte was doing just to listen for a moment.

“You’re okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna shower.” Sam’s voice came through the door.

Brigitte stared at the door for a few seconds before turning her attention back to what she was doing. She was worried about people finding out their dogs being murdered again while they were around. Mostly because they were from Bailey Downs and the strange happening involving dogs there could lead to where they staying now. Any lead to them and they could be in really deep shit.

It was still an aggravation. Brigitte considered the idea of going after the carcass and throwing it away somewhere but she needed to stay and check on Sam  first .

She paced around Sam’s room while brainstorming. That couldn’t happen again because, if that place would become the new Bailey Down s with werewolves around, somehow someone could link their escape to the safe place they’ve found. After all, there w as still Jason, who was probably still infected; and looking for revenge. She hoped it had been just a single dog, Sam hadn’t been too specific.

Sam left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, fresh and rid of blood but still looking a little sick. At least just not as much as to keep throwing up.

“This is fucked up, Brigitte.” He said, sitting close to her on the bed, where the syringe was placed and ready. 

Brigitte seemed distracted and quieter than usual for a brief moment because her stomach literally growled as she looked at Sam .  He was still shaking a little,  looking a little fragile,  leading Brigitte to take a stand and shoot it for him.

“Did you leave it there?”

“Yeah. Two houses down.”

“Only one?” 

“Two.” 

Sam started to go in agony just  like in any other shoot  of Monkshood. It was painful to watch him go through this in front of her eyes. It didn’t take long for him to come down back to his senses, though. For a minute he just kept laying on the bed  on his back,  with his feet on the floor. Just trying to get his breathing even again. 

“I think we should move the bodies,” Brigitte said, still sitting on the bed and looking down at Sam.

He took another long breath before getting up.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

Brigitte moved to the balcony to wait on Sam to dressed up and, together, they left the house, going after the crime scene. It was bad.  It was cold.  But worst then th ose would be leaving the bodies there, laying  in the open. They moved them to a nearby woods, digging shallow graves.

“Sam,” Brigitte said, in a worrisome tone as they walked back to their place.

“What?”

“What exactly happened? You were fine before at the party.”

It took him a while to reply, it was almost like he was struggling between saying the truth or not.

“I’m not sure  in which  degree you’ve been experiencing this but, I’ ve been torn between two  extreme  opposite sides lately. ” 

Sam went silent,  and Brigitte  did the same,  stop walking.  Her green eyes pierced his’s blue ones. Analyzing.

“Look, this is what it is.”  Sam stopped walking,  too. B oth already inside  the property ,  halfway to the house they were staying.

It was dark, not much lightening around the yard. No lights coming from the windows  were on either.

“Since we started making out I’ve been hungry fo r a  couple of things. One of them was what  just  happened.”  He lit a cigarette. “ I know. I’m officially fucked up because it felt… fucking good.”  He whispered the last word.

About that other thing, Brigitte suspected what it was. Yes, Pamela had had that awkward talk with her before. About what boys really want. Thanks for sharing, Pam, for the embarrassing experience.

“I know what you mean,” Brigitte told him back, avoiding his eyes.

They  stared at each other,  trying to figure the other out .

“You do?” 

“I do.”  Brigitte’s cheek went a little red. “ To be  honest, it’s something I th ink  about, too. I  guess …  I might not be ready. Especially not after how I almost ripped your arm off.”

Sam  chuckled, slightly shaking his head no.

“I considered that, Brigitte. No rush. No pressure.” Then he placed a quick kiss on Brigitte’s lips, before taking her hand and lead them upstairs.


	10. The Incident At The Library

Brigitte and Sam were done with all those books they got from the library. Literally all done. Every single word has been read, all notes written down and now, kinda out of resources. Sam wanted to stay at the house and look up online from where he could obtain the other two missing kinds of seeds and order them as faster as possible.

On the other hand, Brigitte wanted to explore more books at the library. As long as she could beat that virus it didn’t matter how much she would have to research. It was not like she would chill out and wait for those seeds to grow at their own speed without trying something else.

Sam dropped Brigitte at the library after breakfast and went back home to keep going with the plan of ordering the Clematis and Ranunculus seeds, which they would never find in Canada. It didn’t matter what kind of market he would have to obtain them either. After all, they were poisonous and illegal.

Inside the library – a place where Brigitte usually felt comfortable to be in – was quiet and not exactly crowded, which was a good thing. She went to the Biology session, carefully looking through chapters of books including circulatory system and gene mutation. Brigitte could spend hours devouring books inside a peaceful place like that just to study.

At first, she sat between one of the many shelves containing books just to make sure she was getting the right books before coming back to one of the empty tables close to those shelves. Being an introvert had its own perks and one of them was not being bothered about spending hours on end inside a quiet library.

Brigitte walked around the place, also looking for some other subjects that could be useful in her research. She consulted with the librarian many times about books Sam and she had looked up on the internet, trying to get her hands on them. Brigitte thought that maybe checking out books with such red flags like the ones she was reading that giving day could raise a few eyebrows and she wanted to avoid that, remaining there for a long time.

Sam had spent his time online and had found a few interesting stores that actually delivered worldwide: exactly what he was looking for. Even better, it was a store one of his friends was friends with the owner. He ordered some extra seeds in the whole package and now all they could do was wait.

It was getting late and Sam decided to drop by the library and see how Brigitte’s research was doing. It was already getting dark outside when Sam parked in the parking lot of the library. He opened the main door and got inside the building.

Brigitte, who was totally immersed in her reading, didn’t notice how a guy on the other table was looking at her. He has been, for the last half an hour. Finally, when Brigitte sensed something or someone was watching her, she quickly scanned the room with her eyes, until she meets the other guy’s on her.

Her eyes moved almost immediately back to the book in front of her. That was creepy, and she secretly wished Sam would appear there soon. That’s when he got up and started to slowly walk towards her. She started to hid her face with her hair as he got closer.

“Hello, beautiful. I didn’t mean to interrupt your studying, but I’ve noticed you staring at me. I thought maybe we could go outside for a bit, get to know each other better?” He said, in a low voice, trying not to get the attention of the other people around.

Brigitte looked at that guy as if he had seven heads. She got nauseated about the invitation. Could anyone be that cheesy? So arrogant and preposterous? Really? And since when guys were interested on her anyway?

“Excuse me?” Brigitte finally said, grossed out about what she just heard.

“C’mon, don’t play hard to get.”

By then, and at the right moment, Sam, who had spotted Brigitte at one of the tables of the main room, had reached her and that guy he have never seen before. At first glance, he didn’t know what was happening but as he got closer he could listen to what that guy said for last. This suddenly made him very mad, extremely angry actually, especially because of the way Brigitte looked so uncomfortable around him.

“You okay?”

Sam asked her, but she didn’t do or say much more than just looking up at him, part of her hair still covering her face.

“Listen. Leave her alone.” Sam warned him in a sharp whisper.

“And you are...?” The other guy, with an amusing smirk, asked Sam.

Sam noticed how rigid and scared Brigitte seemed to be, and he stayed quiet for just a few seconds before taking her books in one arm and offering his free hand to Brigitte. Who immediately took it, standing up from her chair.

“Her boyfriend and I recommend you to stay the fuck away from her. For your own good.”

Brigitte forced Sam to take the first steps away from the other guy by pushing his back forward to the exit door so they could check out the books and just leave there; fast. Fuck the red flags. Brigitte was concerned, she had never seen Sam looked so pissed off before.

Finally back in the van and neither of them had shared a single word. Sam seemed way less agitated there and Brigitte much more relived. Relived from both being away from that creep and that Sam had calmed down.

“My bad, what happened over there. I just felt so angry at the way he was speaking to you.”

“It’s okay. I understand where all that rage comes from.”

“You do?”

“From my perspective, one of the worst symptoms Ginger had back then was an extreme change in her mood, and being aggressive. More aggressive than usual, that is.”

For a moment, Brigitte thought if all that wasn’t about Sam being jealous or territorialist. Maybe that was something that happens while you interrupt a full circle into turning to a werewolf. Perhaps even while being a full beast, too. After all, wolves live in packs.

They kept sat in silence there for a while until Sam broke it with his words.

“Brigitte, what I said before, about you being my girlfriend…”

“That’s okay.” She cut him. “It seemed necessary.”

Another silent moment started to grow inside that van. They were both in their respective seats, staring upfront but also, sometimes, peeking at each other with the corner of their eyes. Sam finally got the guts he had been building up for some time, turning to Brigitte and readjusting on his seat.

“Would you like to be?”

Brigitte’s heart started to race really fast at that question. She looked at Sam with racing thoughts inside her mind. Pondering about that question with caution. But, by staring deeply into his lovely blue eyes she knew the answer to that question amazingly faster than she expected she would in the past.

“Yes. I do.” Brigitte gave him that rare half-smile of hers.

Sam grinned at her and kissed her full on the mouth, both smiling in the kiss. A kiss that started to get a little heated, making Sam break the kiss and nipple on Brigitte’s earlobe. A new sensation Brigitte had never felt. And it felt amazing.

“Let’s go back. It’s close to our daily shot.” Sam said, starting the truck.


	11. That One You Can Lose Only Once

Almost four weeks had passed after all that research. Yet, they were still waiting for the delivery. They took care daily of their own gardening space; Sam even helping out his friends to cultivate other kinds of herbs. Their growing seeds seemed to be growing well – slowly, but was happening.

One of their main concerns was for the already growing up plants to die or not grow as fully expected. But after seeing how they were flourishing, they started to have more confidence in the plan. The Monkshood had grown in a way they could already consume some of it and not run out of those. Plus, winter wasn’t a problem to cultivate the seeds they bought. Especially with indoor cultivation.

It was getting late on one of the other parties they started to participate almost regularly. This time, thrown inside on the other house: Winter was finally there, and being inside made a tremendous difference than facing the cold outside.

Brigitte and Sam had officiated their relationship to everyone – who weren’t exactly surprised. Brigitte was more comfortable with them by then, enhancing her socializing skills. All with Sam’s help, who was always there by her side, sometimes with an arm around her shoulder, sometimes holding her from her waist with her back on his chest, while chatting with others.

They occasionally left to kiss and talk in private, mostly because Brigitte needed some space after spending too much time around people. One thing to discuss was how long the delivery was taking, and how they would still need time to plant those and for those to grow. Another subject popped into Brigitte’s mind that night, though – something she desperately needed to share with Sam.

She kept being secretive about, that was up until tonight.

It was something Sam have been noticing about Brigitte. Something unusual. More unusual than Brigitte unusual. Like tonight. She had been acting strange again, for the most part of it. Staring at some spots without nothing to be contemplated about.

And like two minds, Brigitte decided to share that information.

“Uh, Sam. I have something to tell you.”

“Yeah?” He took another long sip from his glass flask containing whiskey. Still with his arm around her shoulder. Which was good, because it was cold even inside and Brigitte could warm up in Sam’s arms.

“It’s better to talk about it upstairs. I just don’t want anyone else listening to this, that’s all.”

“Oh. Sure. Let’s get out of here.”

They made their way to where they were occupying on the second floor of the other house. This time, deciding to close the door from the balcony and staying inside where was warmer.

Sam lit a lampshade of his bedside table and sat on the bed, looking at Brigitte who was fidgeting a little, still standing up. Sam had a patient look in his eyes, trying to hide the concern inside of him. He lit a cigarette on, trying to give Brigitte enough time to finally start talking to him.

Brigitte paused her steps and finally looked back in his eyes before sitting on the bed next to him. She took a long breath and decided to finally start talking and cut to the chase.

“I’ve been seeing Ginger. About five times already. Actually, six times counting tonight. Before you think I went crazy, I’m aware it’s just hallucinations caused by my post-traumatic stress. I didn’t mean to scare you away talking about this but it’s the pact, right? Telling each other what has been happening lately.”

Sam kept that worried look in his face, which slowly turned into a soft one, mostly just to try to calm her down.

“Okay. I did notice something was up but didn’t know it was this bad and you’ll eventually tell me. When did it start?”

“Couple of times in one of those Hotel rooms we spent some time during the road trip. Another one was that night you eat those dogs for the first time. Then some others last month.”

His first time gutting out and eating pets was a really bad memory for Sam.

“Is she… What does she usually do?”

Brigitte stared at the wooden floor as if it was something extremely interesting to be stared at. Her hands were on her both sides, pressing down on the sheets.

“Usually saying nasty things. Putting me down. Calling me a moron or stupid.”

She paused, remembering about the only time Ginger appeared to her in a peaceful way.

“In one occasion, though, she was very kind. We spent some time chatting in bed and it was… Reassuring.”

Brigitte’s eyes started to get flooded with tears but she refused to let them fall. Sam knew how much Brigitte missed her sister every single day of her life.

“Listen, it’s gonna be alright. It’s just a momentary thing. I’m not here to judge you, Brigitte, but I get worried. Losing someone as close as you two were...”

Sam dropped his eyes to the skull necklaces Brigitte still wore, the one that matched with Ginger’s.

“Must be hard to overcome.” He continued. “But if it counts as something to help you feel better, some company could be the key, and you can count on me, Brigitte. Don’t doubt about it.”

Brigitte looked at him for a long time. She did trust him and his words but...

“How to get rid of her? I need closure, I can’t live like this, it’s fucked up.”

“Try to ignore her. She’ll eventually get tired of it. Besides, you’ve been occupying your mind with new things, right? There’s our daily gardening, daily routine to avoid turning to fucking furries and, well, myself.” Sam gave her a smirk, part of it as a joke, trying to cheer her up.

Brigitte was pleased to have such company as Sam. Since they started going out together things felt even easier to do with one another. The closeness, the talking, the movies watched while cuddling. She was so glad they could share their minds the way they’ve always done.

“Thanks. I’ll try that next time.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t be afraid to come to me if that starts to bother you again.”

“Okay.”

She couldn’t help the smirk on her face before leaning in and brushing her lips on Sam’s. It was nice to do it slowly, with some sort of curiosity and playfulness. But as they got closer to each other, narrowing the space between them, the kiss turned into something deeper and feverish, though still slowly.

It was almost sinful the way they kissed.

Brigitte had her hands on Sam’s hair, pulling him closer to her as Sam had his arms around her, pulling her closer to him.

Was she considering that for “dinner”?

His hands traveled down to her waist and her lower back, touching her with soft fingers. From a hungry one, the kiss turned to a tender, delicate one. It became extremely intimate. Brigitte held onto the lapels’ of Sam’s jacket as he kept holding her closer to him. Sam kissed her over her jaw, making his way to her neck and shoulder.

Sam kissed her back on the lips and as it turned deeper, and wetter, and hungrier, Sam tentatively tried to lay Brigitte down on the bed, not pressing down on her but lying close to her. He kissed her slowly but there was a certain passion in that.

Brigitte relaxed in Sam’s arms – she felt safe in his arms anyway – letting him lay her all the way down on the center of the bed, making sure she could rest her head on one of the pillows.

Something in Sam’s head kept screaming how illegal things might become but it was hard to care. Not even in times he thought about this moment finally coming. He knew Brigitte thought about it from time to time but for her was easier to forget about the age gap between them – three years was still considered a danger for them especially at the age they were at this point.

“Brigitte… This is illegal…” Sam whispered before it was too late.

“I don’t care,” Brigitte whispered back, capturing his lips on hers.

They kept kissing, sweetly, but this time they started to travel their hands on each other’s body, carefully. Brigitte touching his back and arms and Sam touching her sides and her face and hair. Sam moved his kisses to Brigitte’s neck, sucking a little on her skin enough to make a small purple mark on it, making her echoed a loud gasp in surprise.

Sam stopped at that sound and looked back at her.

“Is this okay?”

Sam asked, uncertain if he should proceed. Brigitte looked up at him, holding a breath. She let it escape through her lips and it was a shaky one. Brigitte was just realizing this was actually happening, tensing up a little in Sam’s arms.

“We can stop anytime,” Sam whispered, close to her lips. Eyes locked with hers. “If you’re not comfortable with it.”

“O-Okay,” Brigitte whispered back, trying not to give out how badly she wanted that. “Let’s continue, though.”

It was true that Brigitte was literally the official virgin next door – which Sam already knew by the way – but if it had to happen to anyone, it would be with Sam, Brigitte thought.

They started slowly, but not for so long. Brigitte had gotten better at kissing and kissing Sam had become one of her favorite hobbies, it was true. She dominated her part craving to eat him into pieces. At least up until now.

Sam gently bit on Brigitte’s ear lobe, sucking a little afterward. He moved down to her neck, where he kissed it, nibbled it. Brigitte closed her eyes while he did all those things to her.

As his hands traveled to her sides again, Brigitte’s heart started to beat faster. His hand went to a more sensitive spot, lightly cupping one of her breasts. At that, she opened her eyes, speechless, holding another gasp. He touched her with smooth fingers, grabbing it fully with his hand and kneading it.

He started to massage it as he kept sucking on Brigitte’s neck, who was sighing once in a while. Sam twisted her rigid nipple over her clothes and she echoed what had sounded a lot like a moan.

He sucked lightly over her covered breast as he kept stimulating her other nipple. Sam’s hand moved to Brigitte’s cheek again as he started to kiss her once again. He felt his clothes being tugging,timidlyby Brigitte’s hand, now that they were face to face again.

He went down again but this time to kiss on Brigitte’s stomach, leaving little purple marks on her hip bones. Sam gently pull off her black long-sleeved cozy winter shirt, leaving it close to the bed, by the floor. She still had a cute white vintage short-sleeved shirt on. Which was a sweet thing to see in contrast to Brigitte’s usually dark clothes.

As they kissed again, Sam’s hand started to dare a little further, reaching south and slowly reaching between Brigitte’s legs, over her long skirt. He lazily broke the kiss as he started to lightly rub his fingers on Brigitte’s shaven virgin pussy over the panties. Brigitte gasped out loud and moaned lightly as his skillful fingers kept stroking it, slowly but precise. His blue ones piercing Brigitte’s dark greens.

“Do you like this?” Sam asked, trying to hide all the arousal in his voice.

Brigitte bit her bottom lip and nodded with her head, afraid of giving up how much she was really enjoying of all that.

Sam kissed her lips, her neck, and collarbone, leaving some little bites behind until he reached for her still covered breasts, softer this time without that other heavy shirt. He sat on his knees straddling her and unbuttoned Brigitte’s shirt, button by button. Surprisingly, she reached up to him to kiss him, helping him removing that one.

“You’re really sexy, Brigitte. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Sam gently pushed her back to the mattress with him.

“Sure.” She scoffed.

“But you are.” He told her, seriously.

Sam started to suck lightly on one of her breasts again, over her bra. His other hand again stroking her most sensitive area.

She pulled him closer for her to kiss him again, slowly deciding to remove Sam’s jacket. He helped her out with that. Both of them were dressed with so many layers of clothes yet but it wouldn’t be an issue to remove them one by one if that was the case. They were touching each other’s like they haven’t ever done before.

They kept kissing slowly as Sam’s hand slowly made its way to Brigitte’s skirt, lifting it a little so he could see her underwear. His hand found its way back on that place, that was getting juicy. That Sam could tell, even if moving his fingers over her panties. Brigitte couldn’t help her light moans escaping from her mouth.

Moving back to kiss her on the lips, Sam made her feel like they could kiss forever without anything else in the world to stop them. It felt so fucking incredible. Sam broke the kiss and looked down at her as if he was asking permission to do something, but she wasn’t quite sure exactly what.

Sam kissed her delicately while sliding his hand down over her thigh, meeting her panties again with his fingers. He sat down on his knees to slowly pull her panties off, which Brigitte found wickedly sensual. Sam discarded them of the floor, and it was there that she realized what was about to happen.

The kiss this time got heated very fast as Sam touched her again, now without any layers of clothes in the way, feeling how wet she really was. This was getting so good. Sam kissed her lips goodbye, for now, pulling her bottom lip with his teeth. As he lowered down on her body with sweet kisses, he gently spread her legs apart a little, leaving sweet kisses behind on her inner things, teasing her.

Sam gave her a predatory look in exchange by a surprised stare from Brigitte, before he closed his eyes and lick a long strip down to the top, sucking on the clitoris before pulling away to watch Brigitte’s reaction, which was very worth to see.

How she gripped the sheets under her and opened her eyes with a loud moan coming from her mouth. She was so wet and Sam had just begun his work on her. Sam licked all around to make sure she was clean, apart from his saliva.

He got lost on that taste and Brigitte’s responses to what he was doing to her. Sam knew that was a cherry he would want to explore as much and as long as he could, like anyone else has done before on her.

Which was totally true.

He didn’t use his fingers much, protecting Brigitte’s hymen. Sam’s tongue was amazing and he did amazing things with it; and Brigitte held locks of her dark hair, the pillow, and the already ruined sheets.

Their daily dose of Monkshood was now forgotten and Brigitte’s nails were freakishly longer than before on that same night. Making loud moans of surprise that turned to pleasured ones.

Fuck, Sam was way experienced at this, Brigitte thought. He was driving her nuts just by using his tongue. At the moment, making circular movements around her clitoris, kissing, and sucking it.Stroking his fingers around the most erogenous area, her inner lips, working with his tongue around there, too.

The smell of sex was impregnating Sam, making him use all of the skills he had learned over the years. There was nothing more important for him than making Brigitte feel good now. To pleasure her in all senses of the word.

It was her first time and that carried a lot of responsibility, for sure. At least he liked to think of it that way. Did he really care he had a reputation of a cherry hound? Nah. He wouldn’t put it that way anyway but the facts were all there.

Besides, Brigitte was above all those other girls from his past, turning all of this in much more responsibility than he had felt like carrying before.

Cherry flipping her with hunger but taking all-time in the world to explore her and tease her in all senses. Sucking and flickering his tongue on her clitoris repeatedly and rapidly, licking her all over.

After spending a handful of minutes eating her out, he lifted up and kissed Brigitte on the lips. She felt a different taste on Sam’s tongue. It was weird but exciting at the same time. The kiss was delicate yet passionate.

She sat up, leaving him on his knees close to her and they kissed again, feeling each other’s torso, Sam cupping and massaging her breasts and Brigitte lightly scratching Sam’s chest. With shaking fingers she started to unbutton his button-up long-sleeves. When she was done, he removed that too, leaving him on that sexy tank shirt she came to notice on occasion.

Brigitte couldn’t deny how she liked the way Sam looked. He was lean but under his layers of clothes, his arms muscles and his stomach were something she came to admire lately. She dragged her nails under his tank shirt. Brigitte was glad they were doing slowly, otherwise, she feared she would have sliced Sam’s skin with those nails, or even worst, back out.

She thought it was probably just sex that made her nails grew that way in such speed. In the past, she had learned that was something that can actually happen in this kind of situation. Sam kissed her neck as he had his hands behind Brigitte, trying to undo her bra. Soon enough he was able to do it, taking it off and lying Brigitte back on the bed.

Sam sucked on her breasts as he was favoring some sort of fancy dinner. He played with her nipples and nibbled on them. Sam touched her again down on her cherry, which was completely damp.

He was on top of Brigitte as they went back to kissing but this time was a long, sensual, intimate kiss. That’s when Brigitte heard the sound of a button being undone and a zipper going down.

“Do you wanna touch it?”

Brigitte’s heart started to beat even faster. She dared enough to nod yes with her head.

Sam’s hand reached one of hers and guided to his erection, still covered by his underwear. It was hard and hot. Sam showed her how to touch it, covering her hand with the palm of hisown as he slowly moved her hand on him.

He looked at her and she had a surprised look on her face, barely breathing. After a little while, he left her hand moving by itself before he started to lower down his pants to his knees.

Sam decided to kick off his shoes, socks, and pants off wherever. He took off Brigitte’s boots and socks, too, throwing them with the other discarded items. He kissed her again before finally taking her long Gothic skirt off, leaving her naked under his eyes.

It was pretty chilling and he didn’t want her to feel cold, moving them both under the comfortable warm covers.

Sam slid his hands softly over her thin frame, leaning over her and nibbling and sucking on her ear lobe. He started to lightly hump his clothed erection over her cunt and she moaned a little louder at that. Moving his head a little, he met Brigitte’s eyes, trying to look through any dubious consent as he asked.

“Sure you wanna do it?”

Brigitte stared at him before scratching down on Sam’s chest under his tank shirt with both hands, making him hiss.

“Do you have a condom?” She replied.

Sam moved on the bed to reach the bedside table’s drawer. There he reached for his wallet, where he took two condoms from it.

“Been saving those for a while now.”

It was true. Those were inside his wallet since Bailey Down and even though Brigitte and Sam had started a relationship, he never went after condoms. He wanted to give the time Brigitte needed for what was happening here tonight.

Leaving the wallet on the bedside table, he took one condom in hand and moved closer to Brigitte. Sam could tell she was nervous so he kissed her lovingly, but then it turned to a passionate one that made her shaken and yet, relaxed at the same time.

Brigitte slid Sam’s tank shit up until he helped her out to take it completely, standing on his knees. Brigitte was laying with her legs part opened and Sam was kneeling between them with only his underwear on.

Sam looked at Brigitte’s eyes as he lowered his underwear, revealing his erect member. His eyes dropped to his hands as he unwrapped the condom and rolled it on himself. Brigitte’s heart was beating even faster now.

That’s when Sam got rid of his underwear and leaned down to kiss Brigitte again. He did it slowly, sweetly, trying to make her relaxed and loved for this.

He checked on her down there, even more, moistened than before. Sam readjusted a little to take a look at what he was about to perform. Kneeling again, he positioned himself between her legs and holding his dick, he aimed it to her entrance.

This was meaningful for both of them. Brigitte wouldn’t be a virgin anymore and Sam did have this thing about the hymen being broken that was appealing for him. It was like he could feel it being broken each time he did it. Slowly, he made his way in, just a few inches, enough for Brigitte to gasp out loud.

Sam leaned over her and kissed her as he inserted himself deeper until he could actually feel something in the way that only lead him to be as gentler and slower as he could, to find his way free to go as further. On the other hand, he wanted to just go through, but it wasn’t going to be like that this time.

Both exclaimed a loud moan once he bottomed out.

Brigitte was so hot inside, so tight, and he could feel that probably would have bloodstains on the sheets to be noticed later. But now, there was nothing else in their minds but mate. It was even more difficult because they felt like literally eating each other to the bones.

Brigitte held Sam’s shoulders hard as she tried to get used to that new sensation. He kept kissing Brigitte in such a sexy and teasing way her brain was short-circuiting.

“You okay?” Sam asked in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Brigitte replied, a little out of breath.

Sam took one of Brigitte’s legs and wrapped around his back as he kissed her neck, leaving marks over there but at that point, neither of them cared about the evidence anyway.

He leaned in again to kiss her while he started shallow, slowly thrusts inside of her. Easy and nice, controlling himself to keep doing like that instead of just shoving his way in again and again. Brigitte gasped out with every first thrust and whimpered a little.

Brigitte was tight and hot around him, making this even more difficult but he wanted to do it right. Especially for Brigitte. Sam kissed her with passion even though his thrusts were still slow and careful. She kissed him back with the same passion as she gripped him closer with her legs around his back.

Sam hit her G spot when he started to go a little deeper than before, faster, making her moan and really starting to enjoy what they were doing. Actually, she started to like it so much she started to scratch his back as she moaned out loud. Making him go a little faster.

It didn’t take long for both of them to move from a start of lovemaking to make loud sounds and move faster. Sam kissed her all over and Brigitte started to really hurt Sam’s back, scratching long red lines on it as they kept moving faster.

They were still making love but it was also getting a little aggressive. Especially from Brigitte’s part. She was almost gripping the headboard of the bed with her long nails.

With that, Sam decided to move harder on her, still keeping some composure because he really didn’t want to hurt Brigitte. She was simply showing she was really enjoying that and Sam had nothing else to do but to give it to her nice and skillfully. Sam moaned on her mouth and Brigitte did the same. He started to play with her clitoris with some fingers as he kept fucking her.

After some more minutes of loudly making love, Brigitte moaned and broke the kiss, her body shaking under Sam. He kept breathing loudly as he sucked on Brigitte’s neck, thrusting a few more times before coming hard inside of her.

They need some time to come back to their senses after all that. That had been almost surreal. She felt Sam trying to get his breathing right, close to her neck, still on top of her.

Brigitte thought back about the way she behaved and the way she reacted. Now starting to feel under control again. She touched Sam’s back softly and immediately felt concern once she turned her hand back to her to see it: there was blood all over it.

At that moment Sam started to get up on his elbows to look at her. Watching the look in her eyes he got worried he might have done something wrong.

“Shit. Sam. I’m so sorry. I guess I… Slashed you pretty bad on your back.”

“Yeah…” Sam replied, getting himself together after that orgasm. “I felt that.” He chuckled and kissed briefly. “Let me check that out.”

Sam slowly pull out of Brigitte and headed to the bathroom of the suite. Brigitte saw the light turning on in there and kept lying on the bed, starting to feel colder without Sam in the bed.

In the bathroom, Sam pulled off the condom covered in blood, knotting it and throwing in the garbage. He turned over to check his back in the mirror and holy shit! They were bleeding. Actually… already healing.

Brigitte was wild.

Sam turned the light off again and came back to the bed, getting under the covers with Brigitte. She was laying on her back but turned her head to him once he was there with her again. Sam pulled her closer to her side so they could face each other. Sam kissed her sweetly.

“How’s that?” He asked, in a whisper.

“It felt really good. I thought it would hurt more.”

“Both of us ended up bleeding, you know. I was just trying to be gentle.” Sam was just joking but Brigitte did get a little flustered, chuckling lightly in the end.

She knew that by now Sam’s back was alright. Same thing about Sam knowing Brigitte was okay.

“You were. I don’t regret this.”

Brigitte kissed him and they kissed slowly until they were just touching hands and looking at each other. Sam moved to turn the lampshade off, moving back close to Brigitte. Getting sleepy, Sam cuddled her, resting his nose on her hair.

Falling asleep in each other’s warm arms.


	12. The Cure

Brigitte woke up sometime around the early morning. It was chilling cold and she  instantly  felt glad for all th ose heavy duvets over her.  She and Sam, who was still cuddling her, from behind. He was hugging her close to him and he was also warm, making her  feel cozy as hell.

He hummed briefly, moving her closer with the arm he had around her waist. That felt incredibly comfortable  and Brigitte almost fell asleep again.  A lmost. Ri ght then,  right before she closed her eyes,  she realized a few things,  opening them wide again.

Her nails were longer and creepy, her teeth were sharp and she was starving: For raw meat, of course. Brigitte wasn’t sure about what else has changed overnight and mostly about how and why. 

Then she remembered.

“Oh, fuck.”

Brigitte sat up on the bed in a jump, immediately starting to shake Sam’s shoulder.

“Sam, wake up. Wake up. We missed last night’s shot.”

I t took a few seconds for Sam to  fully wake up from that comfortable spot in bed. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes, trying to get used to the light.

“Brigitte, calm down. What happened?” Sam said, in a sleepy voice.

“The Monkshood. Last night. We missed it.”  Brigitte replied, in all seriousness.

“Oh, shit!”

Sam also sat on the bed with a jump, his hair all messy.  For some reason, a wave of heat hit Brigitte, almost distracting her from the main point.  Sam noticed that he had  a playful look in his face. He leaned in and kissed her, surprising her,  and sliding one hand on her tight.  Not for long, though.

“I got it,” Sam said.

As she kept holding the covers with her hands to protect her from overly exposing herself to Sam’s eyes, he got up, dressed up from the waist down, and started to gather the items to prepare both shots. Brigitte slowly moved off the bed, timidly starting to dress up.

“You know, you don’t really have to dress up  all the way . We could still use that last condom after this.” S am  half-joked, looking at her as he was  heating up the spoon. 

Brigitte was already dressed up  when she sat on the  foot of the  bed with a playful smile.

“Yeah?”

“Definitely.” Sam winked at her.

They kept staring at each other until the sound of the boiling liquid interrupted them. Brigitte approached him, helping him out with the syringes. Finally, both of them injected their respective shots. 

They lay  down  back on the bed as they felt the pain flowing through their veins,  heart, arteries .  Each one using their toothbrush between their teeth to  easy all that pain  and keeping from biting their tongues .  It took them a while to feel  better again, feeling the relief of the stress  off of their system s . 

Brigitte looked at Sam, who was laying on his stomach, taking a few long breaths. She noticed the injuries she had caused last night on Sam’s back and how this morning the wounds were covered with white hair. Brigitte hadn’t noticed yet how her hair had thin locks in white, too. 

Sam looked back at Brigitte, noticing the white hairs and actually finding them really pretty on her. They stared at each other for a while before Sam came closer, leaning on one of his elbows,  resting his  head on his fist.

“What?” Brigitte asked, feeling vulnerable under his eyes.

Sam slightly shook his head as he played with her hair.

“I was just realizing how much I love you.”

Brigitte could feel her cheeks warming up. At the same time, something inside of her started to warming up  as well. She couldn’t help but smile softly.

“I love you, too,” Brigitte whispered.

Sam leaned in to kiss her, closing his eyes and Brigitte did the same, kissing him back. They made love again in that cold morning, wrapped on one another under soft thick covers. There, it was full warmness. Falling asleep on each other’s arms afterward.

At some time around noon, Sam’s phone started to make  annoying  sounds, waking him up.  He reached for his phone in his pants on the floor and answered it. It was Alex, saying his delivery had arrived and he needed to go downstairs to pick  them up.

Sam dressed up,  stopping quickly to clip all those long nails that appeared during the night, planning o n getting rid of those hairs on his back latter. He h eaded downstairs  quickly . The package was larger than he expected.  Sam gave Alex a suspicious look  but signed for all that in the end.

They headed to the greenhouse to unwrap those, Sam finally understanding what arranged had been made without him realizing until now. A fucking huge surprise.

For starters, they weren’t seeds at all. There were four, not two, four perfectly grown specimens of Clematis, two from Japan, and Ranunculus, two from North Europe. They were in great shape and healthily flourished.

“ Fuck me,” Sam exclaimed.

“This is  my gift for you, man.  You guys have been pretty helpful  around here  and you seem happy together.  I t’s the best I could do, knowing the owners of the shop I arranged this deal pretty easily.”

Sam couldn’t hide his joy. Perhaps the cure was staring right in front of him right now. 

“ Thanks, man. I gotta tell Brigitte.”

“No problem.”

Alex went out from the greenhouse with Sam, stopping at the big editing system they had on the first floor of the house he and Brigitte were staying. Sam headed upstairs, jumping the stairs in pairs to get there faster.

“Brigitte.”

Sam had sat on the bed, pulling some of Brigitte’s hair that was on her face back on the back of her ear. He played with her hair a little and called her name once again, running the tip of his fingers on her jaw before she started to stir and open her eyes.

“Hey…” Brigitte said, half-asleep.

“You won’t believe  it .”

Brigitte finally looked more alert, focusing her eyes on Sam’s.

“What?”

“They delivered our order. Better yet, our grown-ass plants.”

She sat on the bed with a surprised look in her eyes.

“Grown plants? I thought it would be just the seeds.”

“Yeah, Alex arranged it all with the owners of the shop. All we need to do now is to finally execute the plan. Finally fucking test it.”

“Before we do it, let’s get rid of the new wolf features on us, then go from there. It will be easier to spot new changes just in case of the worst scenario.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

After dressing up again, Brigitte and Sam moved to the bathroom where Brigitte shaved Sam’s back and Sam clipped Brigitte’s nails. There were some every other spot they took care of, but slicing the tip of their pointed ears ended up being a little bloodier than expected on the sink. Kinda painful, too. Their teeth were almost totally back to normal after that Monkshood shot earlier that morning.

They headed to the greenhouse, stopping to admire their collection of plants. There were seven pots of Monkshood, three of  Thalictrum and Delphinium,  and two of  Clematis  and Ranunculus.  They were finally all there,  and Sam arranged them neatly.

“Before we collect them to be as fresh as possible before using them, what about we get something to eat? It’s past noon.”

“Okay. I’m actually starving. Will give us some time to revise the calculations.”

Sam took her hand in his and t hey  headed into the truck,  d r iving downtown. Sam stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank and buy a pack of cigarettes and a box of condom s while Brigitte stayed in the van, making some notes on what they would have to consider before  injecting the new formula.

After dating for a month, it wasn’t a mystery anymore that Brigitte couldn’t get pregnant yet, both were already infected anyway and it was not like Sam had any illness but it was just in case. Brigitte seemed more comfortable about this term anyway. He was still surprised she had lost her virginity before getting a period but in a way he liked it. Another thing he could keep it to himself.

Sam came back to  the van and he drove to a  nice restaurant he  been  want ing to take Brigitte to for a while now. It wasn’t too expensive but it was nice and cozy inside. They ordered some bloody stakes and beef, some drinks, and a slice of cheesecake they shared. Also sharing the anticipation about their plans for later. The conversation was going great but they were way too anxious to stay there for too long.  S oon, heading back home.

Back at the greenhouse, they c arefully picked up the flowers with gloved hands and reserved in five different plastic containers.  Those flowers were too poisonous to be handled without gloves. The thought of injecting something this strong was terrifying, just not as terrifying as spending the rest of their lives being  half-werewolf .

They walked back to the house and up the stairs, closing the balcony access door behind them. It was an exciting moment as they gathered everything they would need to cook all those flowers together. 

“We cook each one individually, then mix all them in one long shot,” Sam said.

“It should be a 10ml maximum dose, enough for the five of them.”

The adrenaline was pumping through them. Sam brushed it off by pay ing extra attention to what they were doing. After  some minutes both  syringes were ready. Instead of having a purple color like the Monkshood alone  had , the solution was dark yellow, almost golden.

“I go first.” Sam decided, taking the lead there.

“No, we go together,” Brigitte said firmly, looking at Sam’s eyes.

F or a moment, Sam looked into Brigitte’s eyes  back . That wasn’t a negotiation and he wondered about it. Has he taken Ginger’s place  in Brigitte’s life ? He knew it wasn’t quite the same but the way Brigitte put  it out firmly. made him think of how serious they were on this together. Sam was glad after all. He wanted that way, too.

“ Fine .”

They put the tourniquet around their arms, each one with their respective syringes in hands.

“Ready?” Sam asked, holding the tourniquet with his teeth.

“Yeah,” Brigitte replied, starting the slow descent until the syringe was empty. Sam did the same, quickly, but not overloading the pressure into his vein.

It was crucial pain, one they could never imagine nor have ever felt it before. It started to hurt while they were still shooting, it was a greater dosage but they couldn’t stop in the middle of injecting the new substance. 

Brigitte’s heart was pounding in her chest. She got dizzy from pain and started to  shout in agony. It was hard to breathe and Brigitte thought she was going to die. The last thing she could recall was she puking her guts out on the floor and passing out.


	13. The Ending

Brigitte  slowly  started to wake up.  Everything was a big blur. She opened her eyes feeling a little confused with the scene. Both herself and Sam were on the wooden floor, Sam still passed out and there was vomit all around. Brigitte wondered what time was it and how long were they unconscious.

Apart from a slight headache, Brigitte was feeling better. In fact, she was feeling  quite  fine  herself . As if nothing bad had happened to her prior to her waking up. She came closer to Sam and shook him up on the shoulder a little.

“ Sam? Are you okay?” Brigitte said, almost in a whisper.

Almost instantly he started to stir and open his eyes. 

“Brigitte.”

Sam was confused and slightly disorientated but able to at least sit-down. He took a look around, kinda grossed out at the scene.

“We’re alive,” Sam said, almost in a surprised tone. 

He checked his arm and it was healthy, there were no weird hairs, teeth were normal and no pointy ear. Then he spots the syringes on the floor, both empty. Brigitte looked at the same spot with the syringes and other utensils thrown onto the ground as well.

“ I’m fine.  How do you feel ?”  Sam asked.

“ I’m surprisingly good ,”  Brigitte replied.

Silent reined in the room for a moment. The question was the same for both of them.

“Do you think it worked?” Brigitte said, in a low voice again, more serious this time.

“I don’t know. I suppose the next step it’s waiting. No more Monkshood. At least for now.” Sam told her.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Brigitte sighted. “I need a shower.”

“ Sure. I’d go with you but I feel disgusting.”

Brigitte gave him a small half-smile and headed to the bathroom. Sam stood there on the ground for a few more minutes before getting up and gathering their shooting  up  items  in to the kit. He put it away in a drawer. Sam was still surprised at how good he was feeling after what happened and the way it happened. 

Sam took a long look in the mirror in the bedroom. No wolfish features. No desire to turn things to pieces. If only they had a way to test if their bodies were free from the virus. From one side, it could be dangerous going without Monkshood.  On the  other side, it was the only method they had to analyze the virus behavior. 

Brigitte left the bathroom in Sam’s suite, walking towards her bedroom to get changed since her clothes were in that room. She seemed triumphant and Sam moved to the bathroom right after, the taste and smell on him were still there even though he felt better. In the shower, he got rid of all those things, feeling fresh again.

During and after his shower, when he was dressing with clean clothes, he decided he wanted that day to be a special one. After all, that could be the first day they could be actually cured of that curse and it had to be memorable. Sam dressed nicer to the occasion and met Brigitte by the balcony, watching the skies turn darker by that time. She was also dressed really nice, she had a new dress they got for her, just as if she had read his thoughts. It was a black Gothic dress with a classic corset. Her hair had less volume and was longer by now.

“Wow. You look amazing.” He told her, as he got behind her and kissed her neck once, hugging her from behind. 

She turned around and kissed him briefly.

“And you look pretty handsome yourself, too.”

“Thanks. I thought maybe we could go out and celebrate. I mean, if that means we finally got rid of our furry issue.”

“Yeah?” Brigitte’s eyes shined a little bit.

“Let’s take a ride, get something nice to eat, enjoy the night together.”

Brigitte nodded, a little timid to reveal how excited she was about that plan. On the other hand, a little worried about skipping their regular Monkshood shot for the first time. Sam was thinking the same thing and for some reason, they could notice this on each other.

“Where are we going?”

Sam brushed some of Brigitte’s hair – that had turned all dark again – with his fingers before answering.

“You’ll see. Shall we?”

Sam  took her hand in his, which she took , and then left the house one more time. They drove to a nice spot to watch the ending of  dusk. Like a paradox of the first time, they kissed during dawn. Looking at each other as they lay to watch the stars over a blanket and counting the stars together.

Right after that, Sam took her to the  finest restaurant in town for them to have dinner. That was the first thing they noticed about the behavior of the virus. Their craving for raw meat was gone and their acute sense of smell was less intense. Brigitte got her first glass of wine that night. They had dinner with candle lights and all seemed almost magical.

After all, Brigitte was still underage  and hadn’t indulged in alcohol before . They had to make a false ID for her  some weeks previously . Primarily for the fact that they were together and with three years of age gap could be considered illegal most of the things they’ve been doing. Second to make things easier since Brigitte was now without parental supervision to travel around states. She would have to keep that ID for a few more years if she didn’t want Sam arrested or in any kind of other problems.

Sam was eighteen,  almost nineteen, and Brigitte had turned fifteen  last  October. Sam had told his concerns about it to Brigitte but since it was all consensual and between only the both of them wasn’t an issue. They couldn’t picture it like that because of Brigitte’s maturity and Sam’s respect for her.

It was late when they left the restaurant, taking a little walk in the cold winter, walking side by side, and with arms crossed. They talked and talked, noticing how that aggression they’ve been feeling for the past months had diminished. They didn’t stay in the snow for long, but it was late at night when they finally got back home.

In bed – sometimes they shared Brigitte’s bed, other s, Sam’s bed – they were getting more and more intimate and things were becoming more serious between them.  Other things they  came to  notice about the ir behavior, was the lack of tearing things to pieces. Sex between them was caring, loving, amazing and Brigitte was still speechless about the way Sam made her feel in intimacy. Giving her all the time she needed for them to explore  every aspect of that .

“Wow. Brigitte, you’re wild. I love it.” Sam said, after they were done, still a little out of breathing.

“You’re the one teaching me all these  new  stuff.”

They chuckle a little. Sam pulled Brigitte closer to him and they just stared at each other for a long time. They fell asleep shortly after that when birds started to sing as the day started to appear.

In the morning, they woke up feeling even better than the previous day. After a day of celebration and waking up feeling great, without symptoms,  without having to shoot  Monkshood, they thought they were finally cured.  And  that was exactly  what happened.

They were cured.  It had fucking worked.  After a few more days passing without injecting Monkshood and keeping a fully human form, that was  their conclusion . That was maybe why there weren’t so many werewolves around. There was an actual cure for lycanthropy and they had found it themselves, with perseverance. 

After a week, they were positively sure and decided to make a party. Sam’s birthday was close, he would be turning nineteen and everyone celebrated that day. They celebrated his birthday, and Brigitte and Sam, their cure. In secret, of course. It was a hell of a party and Brigitte decided to have a few drinks and take a few hits of Sam’s joint – just for the celebration. She couldn’t be happier.  She could make an exception.

Brigitte was so happy and that was maybe the reason why she didn’t see Ginger again. She was getting over it, she had an amazing boyfriend, new friends, a place to stay. She was starting over  for real now .

Later that night she thought about Pam. What might have become of her own mother? She seemed fine about leaving, too, last time she saw her. It broke her heart to make her suffer from everything that turned out to be.  T he burned down house to her daughters missing. Brigitte wished her all happiness in the world but, still, she couldn’t come back.  Not now, not ever.

After the party, Brigitte and Sam were laying on the grass of the backyard. Sam had Brigitte around his arm s and she was looking up at the full moon. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

“Sam.” 

“Yes?” Sam touched her hair with tender fingers, both still looking up.

“We’re still together, right?”

Sam frowned a little.

“Of course we are. Why?”

Brigitte looked to her side to catch Sam’s eyes, who did the same.

“Well, our mission it’s over.”

“ Brigitte, w e’ve beaten the virus together and you’re still in my arms.  I’m not going anywhere. Not without you. ”

Brigitte stayed quiet,  looking up the stars and  thinking for a  moment before turning her eyes back to Sam’s.

“What happens now?”  Brigitte asked.

Sam r an his fingers on her cheek,  looking deeply at her eyes.

“Anything,” Sam whispered back, before sealing  their lips together.


End file.
